504: Collection of Twenty-five Silhouettes

With Folwell’s 1795 Image of George Washington after a Drawing from Life

504. [SILHOUETTES]. Collection of twenty-five silhouettes in various techniques, including painted, hand scissored, machine cut, and printed; mostly bust profiles, a few full-length. Primarily American, nineteenth century, a few from the late eighteenth century. In some cases the silhouettist is identified. Silhouettists include Samuel Folwell, Peale Museum, Augustin-Amant-Constan-Fidèle Edouart, William James Hubard, and William Henry Brown. Mostly very fine, some framed. See individual condition reports below.

Silhouettes were popular in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Typically a silhouette is a profile with a featureless interior, usually in dense black ink. Silhouettes fall into several classes: entirely painted on paper, card stock, glass, and other substances; hollow-cut, meaning the artist cut freehanded with scissors a profile from paper, which was then mounted on black paper or fabric background; machine cut using the physiognotrace, or profile machine and pasted onto paper or other substance (the first documented use of the physiognotrace in the United States was 1796 in Philadelphia); entirely or partially lithographed or engraved (most frequently printing was used for backgrounds). All forms of silhouettes may have added detail in colors such as white, gold, silver, and other natural shades.

The word silhouette came into use in the United States when silhouettist, Augustin-Amant-Constan-Fidèle Edouart (1789-1861), emigrated in 1839. The origin of the term “silhouette” was first used satirically in Europe referring to disgraced, parsimonious French finance minister, Étienne de Silhouette (1709-1767), who in the latter half of the eighteenth century enjoyed making huge numbers of cut paper shadow portraits on black card stock. The phrase “à la Silhouette" came to mean “on the cheap.” Silhouettes, known as the “poor man’s miniature,” evoked a mysterious quality and were often placed in the family album. Often silhouettes document costume and material culture of the day.

The sitter sat between a candle lamp and a glass screen, behind which was a sheet of oiled paper. The artist, working on the other side, drew around the life-size shadow on the paper. The outline was blacked in later, or cut out and backed with black material. Because the profile portrait focuses on proportions and details of the bony structures of the face, the images are clear and simple in a way that normal painting is not. Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the most accurate and cheapest way of recording a person’s appearance. With the appearance of photography, the art of the silhouette languished. Inventory as follows:

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Painted Silhouettes

[WASHINGTON, GEORGE (sitter)]. FOLWELL, Samuel (silhouettist). Untitled bust profile of George Washington, facing right, wearing coat with four buttons visible, frilled cravat, hair dressed and tied by a ribbon into a queue, exceptionally well painted and evoking quiet dignity, lower left in ink: “S. Folwell Pinxt.” N.p., n.d. [ca. 1795]. Painted in India ink with some details added in white, on rectangular sheet of laid paper: 28.5 x 20.5 cm (folded into octagon shape: 14.5 x 12 cm); portrait painted within hand-drawn oval (11.5 x 9 cm); silhouette: 9.3 x 6 cm. An excellently rendered likeness leaving no doubt that the sitter is George Washington. Clearly delineated and detailed, including even Washington’s eyelashes. Old dark wooden frame with gilt metal liner and hanging ring on verso, oval eglomisé glass. Laid paper with creases where folded (none visible through frame, two short lines of corrosion at top left (also not visible through frame), very mild foxing.

According to DAB, miniature painter, engraver, and silhouettist, Samuel Folwell’s (ca. 1768-1813) “chief claim to remembrance lies in his silhouette of George Washington, said to have been painted from life. Though executed at an unknown date, it has been several times followed more or less closely by other engravers, and has become a type…. He also engraved a bust of Washington.” According to William Spohn Baker (The Engraved Portraits of Washington, Philadelphia: Lindsay and Baker, 1880, p. 109), a similar painted silhouette by Folwell (now at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania) was sketched by him from life while Washington was attending a public event. Silhouettes of Washington from life are exceedingly rare. Anita Schorsch (“A Key to the Kingdom—The Iconography of a Mourning Picture” in Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. XIV, No. 1, pp. 324-327) states that Washington was attending a church service: “Folwell captured the sacred moment for new American citizens by attempting a visual statement on the condition and direction of Washington’s soul.”

For more on Folwell, see Alice Van Leer Carrick, Shades of Our Ancestors: American Profiles and Profilists (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1928, pp. 18, 22-23 and top left illustration on plate following p. 18), who comments:

“First in peace, first in war—and the most silhouetted of our countrymen!” This is my present definition of General Washington. I doubt if even George the Third ever posed for his profile more frequently… The profile done by Samuel Folwell, of which several examples are in existence, is said to have been taken [when] the General was an unsuspecting subject. It was, I believe, first drawn on paper, then painted solidly in India ink, the high lights being touched in to represent hair, stock, ruffles, and buttons, and was “declared at the time a most spirited and correct likeness.” It was taken in 1795, and in 1846 reproduced and published in Watson’s Annals and Occurrences of New York City and State in the Olden Time… Folwell silhouettes are extremely rare, and bring a very high price.

Various versions of Folwell’s silhouette of George Washington are known to exist, most notably the painted profile at the Historical Society of Philadelphia, which is equal in quality to the present offering. Folwell’s iconic image of Washington is the highlight of this collection.

HUBARD GALLERY (silhouette gallery associated with Master William James Hubard, Child Prodigy Silhouettist, 1807-1862). Scissored, with ink and wash details, on card stock, full-length profile of Sarah Mead Hopwood (identified on old frame backing), facing left, wearing mid-calf dress, grey pantaloons, formal curled hair (with bronze highlights), holding in right hand a traditional cup-and-ball toy, left hand at side painted. N.p., n.d. [New York?, 1823 or after?]. Rectangular sheet size: 21 x 15.3 cm; silhouette: 19 x 7.8 cm. Lower left with small oval blind stamp: “Taken at the Hubard Gallery.” Old wooden frame backing with contemporary note in ink (difficult to read): “Sarah Mead Hopwood aged 18 [possibly 13] years & 3 mo. Dec. 18[??].” With printed trade label: “At the Hubard Gallery. An exact likeness with a Frame & Glass may invariably be had for One Shilling… designated the ‘Hubard Gallery’ & by which name it is now universally known in all principal towns in Great Britain, Ireland, the United States, and the Canadas.” Modern ink note: “Sarah Mead Hopwood Aged 13 yrs 3 mths Dec. 1823” (the year on the modern note is probably in error). Moderate uniform browning and a few inconsequential fox marks, generally very good. Contemporary rectangular maple frame, gilt liner, metal hanging ring at top, glazed.

Alice Van Leer Carrick in her book, Shades of Our Ancestors: American Profiles and Profilists (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1928, pp. 93-95), discusses the rarity of full-length silhouettes and color embellishments. Born in England, Master Hubard began cutting silhouettes at twelve years of age. By the age of fifteen, he was a celebrated silhouette artist having cut the silhouettes of the Duchess of Kent and Queen Victoria. He came to New York in 1824 at the age of seventeen where he set up the Hubard Gallery. Never signing his silhouettes with pen or pencil, he chose instead to stencil “Hubard Gallery,” use an impressed mark stating simply “Hubard” or “Hubard Gallery,” or “Taken At The Hubard Gallery.” He never relied upon machinery for aid in cutting his silhouettes, only common scissors.

In 1827, Hubard took up portrait painting under Gilbert Stuart, although he continued to cut silhouettes. McKechnie tells us that Hubard’s early manager, Mr. Smith, continued to run the Hubard Gallery until about 1845. We know that others, including Samuel Thomas Gill, worked for the Hubard Gallery. The fact that the Hubard Gallery employed several artists and the fact that Hubard continued to occasionally cut silhouettes both in America and abroad makes it very difficult to determine where and by whose hand some silhouettes of this time were created. During the 1850s, Hubard established a foundry in Richmond, Virginia, for casting bronzes. When the Civil War started, he invented and produced an explosive for use by the Confederate Army. He died at his foundry, killed by an exploding shell.

[McKENNEY, THOMAS Loraine (sitter)]. Cut and pasted full-length profile on vellum paper of Thomas L. McKenney, facing right, cane in left hand, right hand holding top hat, details such as hair, collar, hand, and hat inked in white, ground and cast shadow below in ink wash foreground. N.p., 1836. In contemporary ink on verso: “Profile of Thos L. McKenney Sept[?] 12[?] 1836.” Overall sheet size: 28.8 x 20.3 cm; silhouette: 26.5 x 7.4 cm. Somewhat browned and water-stained. McKenney (1785-1859), Indian Office official, is best known for the outstanding album History of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836-1844) which he wrote with James Hall. See Item 433 herein.

Unattributed, unidentified, hollow-cut bust profile of a lady facing right, simple image, the profile achieved by cutting image from white wove paper overlaid on medium-weight laid paper painted dark black on recto. N.p., n.d. [nineteenth century]. Rectangular sheet size: 9.5 x 9.5 cm; silhouette: 7.5 x 3.7 cm. Marginal browning along blank edges (not visible through glass), otherwise fine. Old rectangular wooden frame painted black, ornate brass corner pieces, original black roan backing, glazed. Appears to be a companion piece to the immediately following silhouette. With the two is the printed card of Thomas Sidney of New Orleans with later ink note: “Pair of silhouettes in ebony frames of two ladies’ heads—Made in England circa 1775.” The immediately following silhouette, the other element of the pair, actually appears to be a gentleman rather than a lady.

William Henry Brown made his debut as a silhouettist when only sixteen years of age, creating his first profile, a full-length silhouette of General Lafayette. He used common scissors to create his freehand silhouettes, which were superbly rendered with subtle detail. The present format of combined silhouette with lithographed background is typical of Brown’s silhouettes, which were lithographed by the Kellogg firm, often referred to as the Currier & Ives of Connecticut. Brown’s work is very difficult to acquire, even in printed form. Almost the entire edition of Brown’s very rare book with similar prints, Portrait Gallery of Distinguished American Citizens (Hartford, 1845), was destroyed by fire, and it is rare to find a complete copy of the book. The Kelloggs also sold separate lithographs from Brown’s book (as here). Brown’s original silhouettes are difficult to find, despite the fact that he was prolific. See: Alice Van Leer Carrick, Shades of Our Ancestors: American Profiles and Profilists (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1928, pp. 150-162; The author remarks on the value of the backgrounds for the study of American material culture of that time).

Included with the collection is a fine copy in dust jacket of Alice Van Leer Carrick, Shades of Our Ancestors: American Profiles and Profilists (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1928. Plus two other printed silhouettes.

Starting Bid:

$7,000.00

Buyer's Premium:

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